The rock group Dawes is doing a dozen shows in less than a week at this year’s South By Southwest Music. That kind of frenetic pace is common for bands at the annual teeming megafest in Austin, Texas, but unlike many of them, Dawes isn’t a freshman act struggling to get fans to remember its name. With a straight-ahead sound and vivid songwriting, the Los Angeles-based group has racked up acclaim and a strong following that includes influential fans such as Jackson Browne, who has performed with Dawes.

At SXSW, the group’s mission was to draw attention to the coming release of a new record. “Stories Don’t End,” their third album, comes out April 9 amidst a spring season packed with other music releases. At parties and showcase concerts around town, Dawes introduced some of the new material, which highlighted singer and songwriter Taylor Goldsmith’s focus on character sketches and narrative. In the song “From a Window Seat,” for example, Goldsmith sings about flying on a plane and pondering the life story of those aboard, including himself.

Where some bands do their best to whip audiences into a frenzy–always an uphill battle with seen-it-all spectators at SXSW–Dawes takes a more nuanced approach. Goldsmith, who also plays guitar alongside Tay Strathairn (keyboard), Wylie Gelber (bass) and his brother Griffin Goldsmith (drums), says. “A great band is one that plays to its strength. We’re not going to be doing barn-burner after barn-burner and laying an audience to waste. We do it through some moments like that, but also where we extend a song for a five minutes or through a really soft ballad and seeing how quiet we can get an audience. When you can hear how together the band is with the audience, those are some of the best moments.”

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Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.